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Fact Check: Is Billionaire Bill Gates on the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors?
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Fact Check: Is Billionaire Bill Gates on the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors?

No. There is a supervisor named Bill Gates, but it’s not the Microsoft founder.

Microsoft founder Bill Gates. (Photo by Dursun Aydemir/Anadolu Agency /Getty Images.)

A viral Instagram post suggests that billionaire Bill Gates is on the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors. 

Maricopa County is governed by five elected district supervisors. According to the official Maricopa County website, the board of supervisors: “sets the agenda and approves a budget that allocates money to all departments and elected offices.”

Although there is someone named Bill Gates on the Maricopa Board of Supervisors, it is not billionaire Bill Gates, as the social media post suggests.  

Gates represents District 3 on the Board of Supervisors, and according to Maricopa County’s website, “his priorities include public safety; fiscal responsibility.”

intelligent growth; economic development; encouraging innovation; and finding efficiencies.”Gates was first elected to the Maricopa Board of Supervisors in 2016 and was re-elected in 2020. More biographical information about this Gates, as well as his picture, can be found on Maricopa County’s website.

Khaya Himmelman is a fact checker for The Dispatch. She is a graduate of Columbia Journalism School and Barnard College.

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